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Authors: Pat Adeff

Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #General

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BOOK: To Protect and Serve
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There were boxes of colored pencils, reams of lined paper, several pads of drawing paper, and a new 3-hole punch to replace the one that invariably got destroyed by one of the students every semester when they tried to punch too many pieces of paper at one time.

             
“How did Jonathon like the house?  Did he like this one any better than the last one?”  At that, Tess turned with a smile on her face to look

 

at Nancy.  In the space of a second, the smile vanished and was replaced with a small look of alarm.

             
“Are you all right?”  Tess hurried to Nancy’s side.

             
Nancy almost barked out a laugh.  She had heard that question how many times in the last hour?  She realized that Tess was truly concerned, but didn’t have it in her just yet to explain what she’d been through.  She wasn’t even sure how
she
felt about it!

             
“I’m okay, Tess.  I just ... have a migraine starting up.”  Nancy rubbed her right temple, as though it would make it seem like she really had a headache, and not a heartache.

             
“Why don’t you go home, then?  I’ll take over for the day.  In fact, take Monday off, too.   All we have to do is get the classroom ready for the summer school crowd.  I can do that by myself.  We’ve already gone over the plans and I know what you want.”

             
Nancy felt no qualms about leaving the classroom decor to Tess.  In fact, Tess had brought fresh ideas with her when she came on board as a teacher’s aide.  Tess was natural as a teacher and Nancy counted herself lucky to have been chosen as Tess’ mentor.

             
“I think you’re right, Tess.  Thanks.  I’ll go.”  Nancy picked up her purse, made sure she had her cell phone, and left.  She got outside before she remembered that she didn’t have her car.

             
Oh, for crying out loud!  What next?  She stood on the school sidewalk feeling the heat beat down on her shoulders while she debated her options.  She didn’t want to call Jonathon.  She just couldn’t face him yet.  The girls were busy.  They were home packing an overnight case to take with them to their grandparent’s home.  Dad! 

             
That was just about Nancy’s final undoing.  Tomorrow was her dad’s angiogram, and she had agreed to take him and Mom to the hospital.  Nancy wavered on the emotional precipice of what could easily become an avalanche of self-pity.

             
From somewhere deep inside, Nancy shored up her reserves of strength and decided that she’d just have to wait until later to fall apart. The divorce wasn’t tomorrow.  She didn’t HAVE to move out just yet.  Dad and the rest of her family came first right now.   Okay, she was a drama teacher.  Bring on Scarlett O’Hara. 
I’ll think about it tomorrow.

             
Nancy took a deep breath, went back into the classroom and asked Tess if she’d mind terribly driving her home, because of her ‘headache.’

             
Nancy felt bad about lying, but was determined to do whatever she had to do to get through the next few days.  Not only for her parents’ sake, but for her girls, too.  The girls.  How was she going to tell the girls? 

             
Wait a minute.  Hold on.  It didn’t have to happen now.  No one needed to know right now.  There was enough stress already with Dad’s procedure.  This could wait.

             
And wait it did while Nancy took care of her family.

             
Tess dropped her off in front of the house and Nancy thanked her for the umpteenth time. 

             
“Give me a call!”  Tess waved as she drove off.

             
Nancy took another deep breath.  Well at least she was getting oxygenated today.  A little giddy with overwhelm, Nancy mumbled under her breath, “
and, scene
.”  A small giggle erupted and Nancy clamped it down hard.  It would be so easy to crumble here on the front porch and have a complete set of hysterics.  Instead, she again pulled herself together, pasted a smile on her face and opened the front door.

             
“Girls!  I’m home!”  Nancy called out and instantly heard feet running upstairs.

             
Kate leaned over the upstairs banister and called down, “Hey, Mom!  When did you want to leave?”

             
“Oh, we’ve got a couple of hours, honey.  I haven’t packed yet either.  If we wait until after 5:00 we’ll be able to miss the rush on the 91 freeway.”  Nancy was pleased with just how normal she sounded.

             
“Hey, Mom!”  Christy’s head appeared next to Kate’s.  “Is there room in the car for my skateboard and blades?”

             
“Of course, sweetie!  If you want, we can even put the bike on the roof rack.”

             
“Nah.  We won’t be there that long.  Thanks anyways.”  Both Kate and Christy disappeared back into their rooms to finish packing.

             
Nancy wandered into the kitchen, the pristine white kitchen, and opened the refrigerator door.  The chilled air felt good on her face.  She removed a bottle of filtered water, found a glass and put ice cubes in it, then poured the water over the ice.

             
Taking the glass with her, Nancy moved into the pristine white living room and sat on the white leather couch.

             
Nancy actually would have loved more color in the house, but Jonathon wanted all white.  He called it “minimal.”  She called it “boring.”  However, he’d always had the last say in the house décor, mainly because she didn’t want to fight with him.  She always

felt like she’d lost a couple of IQ points after an argument with Jonathon.  She thought something made perfect sense, but he’d convince her otherwise and by the end of the fight, her head was spinning.

              Nancy sighed as she sipped on the water.  Oh, well.  Maybe after she got her own place she could spruce it up a bit.  She’d definitely add more color and texture.  And some pictures on the walls!

             
Jonathon only allowed pictures on one wall in the upstairs hallway.

             
However, Nancy had persevered and gotten Jonathon’s agreement that the girls’ rooms were theirs to do with as they wanted.  His only stipulations were “no paint other than white” and “no nails.”

             
So Nancy took the girls shopping and they found armfuls of posters that covered every square inch of wall space, attached by miles of tape.

             
The girls also had brightly colored bedspreads, pillows and throw rugs that accented the light beige Berber carpet that covered most of the floors in the house.  The rest of the floors were done in light wood and white tiles.  Clean, but uninspiring.

             
“When did I change?”  Nancy tried to think back on if the change in her was subtle or if it happened overnight.  Being a drama teacher, Nancy was anything but staid.  For gosh sakes she used to belly dance at the Renaissance Faire!  She loved color in her clothing and surroundings.  She used to have tons of jewelry.  Her ruby ring and pearl necklace used to be jumbled in her jewelry box right next to a huge assortment of costume jewelry.  Nancy didn’t care if the jewels were real or not.  She bought jewelry if it was bright and artistic.  Now her jewelry consisted of a pair of pearl and gold stud earrings, her wedding band, and her grandmother’s ¼ carat diamond necklace.  Much more in line with Jonathon’s approval.

             
Her shoes had gotten more conservative, too.  Nancy kept one pair of rhinestone studded ballroom dance shoes in the back of her closet and sometimes would pull them out and put them on just to see if they still fit.  She’d given her toe shoes to Kate and all the rest of her collection to the Goodwill when they’d moved into this house.  Jonathon didn’t want boxes and boxes of shoes cluttering the closet.  Nevermind that they had separate closets and he didn’t have to see inside Nancy’s.  “A cluttered house is a cluttered mind.”

             
Big sigh. 
Well, at least I’m definitely getting more oxygen
.

             
Nancy finished her water and took the glass to the kitchen where she placed it in the top rack of the built in dishwasher.  She took a paper towel and wiped down the counter – whether it needed it or not – and went upstairs to pack for her folk’s house.  She hoped she and the girls would be gone by the time Jonathon arrived home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 2

 

 

              “It’s only been one week and already I feel like the typical kid of a divorced family!”  Kate exclaimed as she jumped into the front passenger seat of Nancy’s 8-year old mini-van. 

             
Nancy hid a grimace of guilt.

             
Their older girl, Kate was trying very hard to make the best of the situation.  She sure wasn’t happy about it, but seemed determined to not make it any more difficult for anyone else.

             
Jonathon had just pulled into the cobblestoned area in front of the gates at the guard station of their perfectly planned community in Irvine.  He was coming home with Kate, and Nancy was taking off.  She and the girls were going grocery shopping.

             
After dropping Kate, Jonathon drove past them into the gated community without even looking at Nancy, much less a wave or courteous comment.

             
Oh well
, Nancy thought to herself. 
Probably just as well
.  She wasn’t sure if she could have been cordial or not.  Her emotions had been on such a roller-coaster that sometimes she was surprised what came out of her mouth these days.  Not to mention the thoughts that bounced around inside her head!

             
As Nancy pulled out of the gated area, she thought back seven years to when they had first moved here.  Jonathon had purchased the second home available in the new community before it was even built.  They’d stopped by regularly with the girls to see their house go up.  They’d even made a time capsule with notes from each of them, a picture of the family, as well as a few trinkets from the girls, and placed it in one of the walls of the house before it had been finished.  This had definitely been their ideal home.  It was the perfect Orange County neighborhood.

             
That seemed like a lifetime ago.  Now it seemed a little too
Stepford
for Nancy.

             
“Mom?”

             
“What?”

             
“I said, don’t we have to pick up Christy?  She’s at Blake’s.”

             
“Oh, geez yes!  Thanks, Hon.  I almost forgot.”  Nancy made a quick left turn onto the next street.

             
“Mom?  You okay?”

             
Good grief, the number of times she had heard that phrase over the past ten days.

             
She wanted to say “No, not really.  In fact I’m a basket case.   I’m coming unglued at the seams and I just want to hit something!”  Actually not something -- someONE -- whose name began with a
J

             
Instead, she gave her daughter a smile and said “Yep.  Just a little tired.  Good thing I have you around to remind me.”  Nancy could tell from the look in Kate’s eyes that she didn’t believe her, but at least she didn’t persist with more questions.

BOOK: To Protect and Serve
10.95Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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